Half-baked, badly researched, over-written tripe. My ancestors would have eaten Zimmer Bradley's Celts for breakfast. ( )

Geweldig boek!

Fascinated by "The Mists of Avalon" I immediately bought this prequel in 1994, but was bitterly disappointed, it turned out to be just one of the usual, not so special Zimmer-Bradleys ( )

This book, a prequel to Bradley's more reknown Mists of Avalon, reminds me of a little sister of the Mists of Avalon. The story is not as epic, the characters are not as interesting, but it's an overall well-written novel and honestly if you liked Mists, you'll enjoy this read.

Bradley, at least in this series, does not write in typical fantasy style. I believe I would characterize it as tragic fantasy. Most fantasy novels develop flawed, human characters that persevere despite their flaws and end up saving the world/themselves (i.e. Hobb). Still another motif is to create a practically flawless character and just pit them against extraordinary circumstances to have fun watching them eventually kick ass (i.e. Goodkind, Jordan). I'm convinced that Bradley (at least in the Avalon series) creates good characters, spends the first third of the book getting you to like them and showing their point of view, and then breaks them down. She does this through not only plot movement but also strange unexplained character shifts. Her characters tend to be not just complex, but also fickle. So you spend most of the novel watching this downward spiralling train wreck that usually leads up to some ultimate tragedy. Then in the end you are left crying not bittersweet tears, but just bitter ones. This novel follows that formula to a T; the end of the novel is characterized by a series of seemingly random, unfortunate incidents that result in disaster, for very little moral or world gain.

I find it likely that I will read more of her, but I definitely will have to mix it with some books that don't take such a bleak outlook on the outcome of life. ( )

This book was a good mix of historical fiction and fantasy. I liked learning about the effects of Roman occupation in the British Isles and how local leaders either fought or tried to maintain some tentative peace. Gaius and Eilan's forbidden romance made a good backdrop to the Roman/Briton tensions at the time. I look forward to reading the first book in the series, The Mists of Avalon. ( )